Research Blog: A Closer Look at Gender Roles in Music Videos

     Music videos are a very important part of today's music industry. However, they have also been a constant topic of debate, and often the question of whether they do more harm than good is raised. There are many different views on the display of gender roles in music videos. A common argument, for example, is that there are generally displays of violent behavior from men, and promiscuous behavior and clothing in women. From this point of view, further arguments can and have been made that women are often degraded in music videos. However, further analysis of the content of some music videos reveals that there may be more to it than that. In fact, according to the article, "Performing Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender Display in Music" by Cara Wallis, music videos need to be looked at more closely.
     From the time they began working their way into the mainstream in the eighties, music videos have been the subject of speculation. This is mostly due to the fact that the target audience is generally young. According to Wallis' article, the earliest studies done on music videos revealed "a proliferation of stereotypical gender roles, particularly as these pertained to negative images of women and women as sex objects", and that "Many studies also focused on violence in music videos, finding that males, compared to females, were more likely to be aggressors as well as victims of violence". (Wallis, 160) Wallis also says that studies done later on in the nineties showed the same results. Those kinds of results may suggest that music videos should not be aired on cable television, because they may be harmful a possibly impressionable younger audience. However, it is not that simple. The production of music videos is an essential part in musicians' success, and leads to their music becoming more popular. For this reason, it is necessary that the videos are closely analyzed in studies, as the one in Wallis' article.
     The concept of these "gender displays" is as follows, according to Wallis: "Gender display, as an aspect of nonverbal behavior, includes touch, facial expressions, eye contact, gestures". (Wallis, 162) Needless to say, the displays can be very subtle, which is why the content of music videos needs closer inspection. Furthermore, most of the data collected on gender roles in music videos comes from studies done in the 1980's and 90's, and is outdated. In order to obtain more current and accurate results, a new study was done.
     In this study, the gender displays of both male and female lead performers were examined. The videos chosen were both performance videos and concept videos that had been aired on both MTV and MTV2. These television networks were chosen because they are the two most popular, with over 86 million households subscribing to it alone. (Wallis 164) To provide an overview of how the study was conducted, Wallis says, "Music videos were selected using a purposive sampling strategy. The goal was to generate a broad sample of pop, rock, and rap music videos popular at the time and that contained sufficient representations of males and females for meaningful comparisons." She also says, "Thirty hours of MTV and 10 hr of MTV2 were videotaped for three weeks during late October 2004 and early November 2004. Videotaping was done on alternating days during rotating three-hour blocks between 5:00 am and 11:00 am, considered “prime time” for music videos because most MTV daytime programming is increasingly devoted to talk shows, game shows, and reality shows. During the sampling period, it became clear that MTV broadcast an overwhelming number of videos with male lead performers, so additional recording of MTV2 was done during the last week of the taping period. This taping added only three additional music videos to the sample". (Wallis 165) There were initially four hypotheses in the study:

1. Female lead performers will display more subordinate nonverbal behavior than will male lead performers
2. Male lead performers will display more dominant modes of nonverbal behavior than will female lead performers
3. Female lead performers will display more overt sexuality than will male lead performers
4. Male lead performers will engage in more nonverbal displays of aggression than will female lead performers.

The results from the study show that all four hypotheses were essentially correct, and that the gender displays occured as predicted.
     
      In conclusion, from Wallis' article and from the results of the more updated study within her article, it is safe to say that perhaps the previous research done on gender roles in music videos is, unfortunately, fairly accurate after all. - Rachel Brooker

Works Cited

Wallis, Cara. "Performing Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender Display in Music Videos." Sex Roles 3-4 64 (2010): 160-72. Print.